Tag Archives: politics

So as many people have heard, North Korea was at it again, firing artillery shells at the island Yeonpyeong near the invisible border, which North Korea has never fully accepted, of course. Two soldiers are confirmed dead, 16 or more injured, multitudes of buildings were set on fire, and the world is setting its eyes once more on a bat shit crazy dying leader and his pudgy, probably battier son. My Korean senses were tingling all day. Needless to say, it was rather frustrating.

The reasoning behind this latest act of douchebaggery really doesn’t matter to me. In all honesty I think the son is just trying to gain kudos by proving how hardcore he is now that daddy chose him as the successor. Or maybe they’re trying to show their conviction in utilizing their uranium processing plants. Or maybe they just flat out ran out of things to do and they played a really crazy game of truth or dare. I don’t care at this point. People have been expecting war to escalate any time now for years. It’s a shame, it’s frightening, but it’s been hiding in the corner of almost every Korean’s mind, lingering like some tape worm in hibernation. My only reaction after receiving a text about it in the middle of the night was:

WTF? You really want to do this? Big brother China won’t support an unstable country in war, savior of the world US won’t sit back while you rain on their pet Asian country, and South Korea will just lose it. You’re Korean, man, you know how crazy pissed off we can get.

War: sucks. No one wins. People die, economies suffer, lands are ruined and the vibes in the air just shriek anxiety. I don’t even think North Korea wants war. But they do have less to lose, and more to prove, and one day they might just slip up and aim their guns at the wrong people at the wrong time. South Korea can only be “calm and restrained” for so long before they just say: “fuck it”.

Up yours, brothers.

A lot of people just say “Ahhh whatever, South Korea will win anyway, then they can just take North Korea. Or maybe they’ll just become unified for some miraculous reason and all will be well again.”

Even if victory was so assured (which it never is) remember what happened to Germany when the two sides combined? It sucked. The lagging economy of the East greatly brought down the strength of the West, and they were far stronger and sturdier than the economy of South Korea right now. I’m all up for unification but not like this. A country bonded by memories of pointing guns at each other isn’t such a tempting idea.

There are limits to being bat shit insane. Get your act together Kim Jong Il/Un, this isn’t some board game. People will only tolerate your “nuclear powers” for so long before they show you what real nukes look like. And that’s just another situation no one wants to get into.

If you were too lazy to click on the link, I’ll rephrase: The Republican candidate for Senate in Delaware, Christine O’Donnell, has never read/heard of the first amendment. In fact, she is incredulous at the idea that a group of law students would try to say that there is a such thing as a separation of church and state written anywhere in the constitution. This funny. This is sad.

And it is incredibly distressing.

After the awkward reign of Bush Jr., young America (and some older America) are seeing politicians as not only the crafty, lying, untrustworthy, and two faced archetypes of the past, but simply stupid as well. More and more do we realize that politicians are not coming forward with knowledge based on degrees in economics or political science, but knowledge stemming from audio clips and 30 second news snippets from their favorite channels. None of it is fact. None of it is thoroughly supported. We are running elections not based on credentials or fair academic debates, but on high strung emotions and far-right/far-left grumblings. People don’t like taxes? THE OTHER PARTY WILL RAISE YOUR TAXES!! People want jobs? THE OTHER PARTY IS TAKING YOUR JOBS!! People like babies? THE OTHER PARTY WILL EAT YOUR BABIES!!

The list goes on, the shouting continues, and the people in the middle the majority of America is stuck in between two emotionally charged, academically empty loud-speakers. Loud speakers that blast “news” in mini bites that the populace can swallow without chewing, music they can dance to without learning the proper steps.

When a person wants to open a restaurant, they must pass inspections and get a license. This ensures that their patrons are not eating poisoned, rotting food. When a person wants to drive a car, they are supposed to take a test to get their license. This ensures that the people around are somewhat safe from getting run over and run into. Politicians hold a position much more important than these; they feed the people information longer lasting than food, and run political machines more dangerous than vehicles. Isn’t it about time they have to get a license to spout their words? A license to be heard by the people as a political figure? When a person is uneducated in the field that they are going into, shouldn’t we be made aware of this before they are able to taint the radio waves and TV stations?

This is not to say that the GOP are the only ones that are under qualified and over hyped (quite honestly this is a trend that all parties seem to follow), but dear Lord, if you’re going to complain about losing constitutional rights, at least figure out what they are first.